By CCN.com: Brock Pierce, a co-founder of Blockchain Capital, a major venture capital firm that focuses on the crypto sector, has said that EOS and TRON are thriving based on the number of decentralized applications (DApps) and active users on the two smart contract blockchain protocols.

In the past year, as alternatives to Ethereum (ETH), both EOS and TRON have focused on scalability to create a more efficient ecosystem for developers.

Although Ethereum still remains in control of the market as the first major smart contract protocol, a Dapp.com report revealed that EOS and TRON are experiencing a rapid rate of growth and closing their gap with Ethereum.

Is the Bet of EOS and TRON to Focus on Scalability Appealing to Developers in Crypto?

According to Dapp.com, EOS has recorded the highest number of on-chain transactions in 2018 amongst all smart contract blockchain networks, overtaking Ethereum, TRON, Cardano, and Steem.

The researchers wrote:

EOS has become the largest blockchain in terms of transaction amounts and transaction volume within two quarters in 2018. 97% of transactions were from gambling, and 75% of transactions volume was contributed by betting games.

EOS, TRON and other scalability focused blockchain projects are able to achieve a high daily transaction volume due to the presence of a group of nodes that hold more authority than the rest in the community.

EOS and TRON have a group of nodes called Masternodes in place which take on many of the key roles that affect the long-term growth and sustainability of their respective blockchain networks.

“EOS Masternodes are taking the key roles to expand the EOS dapp ecosystem. They have developed various tools to facilitate account set up and resources lending. And a lot of EOS dapps are advised or invested by the Masternodes,” the researchers noted.

One common criticism against the two projects is that the existence of a group of node operators with more authority than others present a higher level of centralization in comparison to Ethereum and other structurally decentralized cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

Previously, Nick Szabo, a cryptocurrency and smart contract pioneer, raised his concern in regard to the ability of EOS to freeze wallets or funds based on criteria established by a certain group of individuals.

Szabo explained:

In EOS a few complete strangers can freeze what users thought was their money. Under the EOS protocol you must trust a ‘constitutional’ organization comprised of people you will likely never get to know. The EOS constitution’ is socially unscalable and a security hole.

As such, while scalability focused blockchain networks can typically achieve a higher transaction volume capacity, there exists a trade-off between scalability and decentralization.

For developers, especially teams working on DApps, scalability is crucial in processing large batches of data in short time frames. Throughout the past three months, EOS and TRON have found success in appealing to developers and DApps that require flexibility in terms of data processing and capacity.

TRON’s Aggressive Approach

The researchers at DApp.com emphasized that TRON, a blockchain project led by Justin Sun, is aggressively pushing for the adoption of its protocol. The report stated that TRON launched a $2 billion project, which was confirmed by Sun, and spends hundreds of millions of dollars to promote its DApp ecosystem.

During our testnet launch, I announced that 1 Billion USD will be dedicated to the #TRON community rewards program. Now that number is 2 Billion! Welcome to Project Genesis. #TronPG $TRX #TRX pic.twitter.com/048Vu1OipT

— Justin Sun (@justinsuntron) April 14, 2018

So far, TRON’s approach has paid off. In the past three months, TRON has outperformed both the U.S. dollar and Bitcoin. However, it remains to be seen whether the momentum of TRON is sustainable, especially pertaining to its price given that analysts generally expect the bear market of cryptocurrencies to extend throughout 2019.

Chart via TradingView

Also, from its all-time high, the price of TRON remains down by more than 89 percent. In a one-year span, Bitcoin still remains as the better performing cryptocurrency over both TRON and EOS.

Click here for a real-time EOS chart and here for a real-time TRON chart respectively.